Category: Poker

Chinese poker has recently gained interest in many countries away from the Asians where it was initially quite popular. The game is easy to learn and finding your way around it can be mastered even by beginners. It is the type of game where chance happens to all players and therefore being a beginner does not disqualify you from winning. It does not use any betting, and thus there is a question on it really being poker. However, its use of poker hands gives it a right to have the name.

The background of Chinese Poker

Where Chinese Poker originated from is still a mystery to be solved. It is said that it first originated from China long ago and remained among the Chinese for thousands of years. Later, it was spread to other countries as the Chinese migrated. Others say that it came up as a redefinition of the Pai Gow game in the US when the players merged some of its properties with other games such as the Draw and Stud games and hence giving it the name Chinese Poker. The game was able to make a professional signature in 1995 when it was added to the list of World Series poker schedule for events. Since then it was able to create enough excitement around it to allow it last a significant while longer after the World Series events.

How to play Chinese Poker

To play Chinese Poker, you need two to four players, 52 cards and a way of keeping score. Each player is given 13 cards which they divide into three poker hands. Two of the hands have five cards while the third one has three. The players then arrange these cards in such a manner that the back has the highest rank and the front has the lowest. The backhand is placed looking downwards in front of the player, followed by the middle hand and then the front hand. The players then get to play their hands in a clockwise manner.

The players announce their loyalties after the rounds and then reveal their hands. A player wins if they make all three flushes or straights.

As you can see, it depends on the best poker strategy a player decides to use. Many players have poker tips that they have learned from the best or from generations.

The relation between Chinese Poker and OFCP

There is a thin line between Chinese Poker and Open Face Chinese Poker (OFC poker). OFC poker is a variation of the Chinese poker that originated from Finland and was later introduced in the United States in 2012. Here the players are given five cards to start with, and then they get to pick one card at a time to fill for the other eight cards. The cards are then arranged facing up, and players do not get to rearrange the order later in the game.

Open Face Chinese Poker strategy

For a player to have the upper hand in the game, they need to know a few poker tips. Players need to make sure that the backhand is stronger than the middle and the middle than the front. Breaking a maximum of three rules makes the hand to be considered as a foul. The aim of every player is to make sure that they have a higher score than their opponents.

Keeping Scores

Players are awarded points based on the number of rows that they win. For example, if a player wins two rows and loses one they get 1+1-1 point. If they win all three rows, they get 1+1+1 and then they are awarded a three-point bonus to give them a total of six points. In some cases, players can have a draw or a tie. This can happen when a player X wins the first and middle row and his opponent, and player Y wins the third row straight hence canceling out his opponent’s scores.

Other ways of keeping scores include multi-way scoring that where a player sits with each of his opponents until all debts are paid and the inclusion of royalties.

Conclusion

How to play Chinese poker is open for anyone who has the zeal to learn and have fun. There is a list of rules for the game which include a no quitting policy until scoring. This may vary with the players. The game may be easy, but it definitely requires one to employ strategic thinking.

If you’re bored with the standard games of poker and want to take your gambling skills to the next level, there’s no better way than joining a poker game mix.

The elite of the table card games is the 10 Game Poker Mix organized by Full Tilt casino.

What Is A Poker Mix Game?

Mixed games of poker represent tournament sets of different types of poker played in a certain rotation order and different numbers of hands. The action is very dynamic and the players usually are rookies. They’re incredibly attractive games if you’re in the game it to make some quick cash.

Mixed games are considered a supreme test for players because they’ll have to play different types of poker which require various skill sets. It’s a challenge and a way for the pros to disrupt their standard routines.

Mixed poker games have several stake limitations, various structures, and blinds.

Tips and Strategies For Playing Mixed Poker Games

Players should always be aware of the type of poker game they’re playing. You can easily get confused and play Stud with strategies you would apply to Razz.

You should figure out what poker games you can ace and on which ones you can at least break even or reduce your losses. Focus on developing a mixed poker strategy and tweak your style.

Study your rivals to identify their patterns and weaknesses and use them to your advantage. During the poker games which you’re an expert on, you should pile up on your bankroll so you can cover your weak points in other types of poker games.

Do some online research before the mixed game and study the rules and strategies for each type of poker. Use online casino sites to test and improve your skills.

During online mixed games you should use the notes feature so you can record the specific patterns of each player. A player may adopt a TAG style in a Texas Hold’em game but use a LAG style in a Stud poker round.

10 Mixed Poker Games – the Top-rated Variants of Poker

When you’ve done your homework and you consider that you’re ready for the 10 Game Poker Mix, you should join the mixed game provided by Full Tilt. It’s the largest and most dynamic mix game of poker worldwide.

Full Tilt has set up a dynamic combination of 10 poker games including Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em, Fixed Limit Stud Hi/Lo, Pot Limit Omaha, Fixed Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, Fixed Limit Razz, No-Limit Hold’em, Fixed Limit Stud, No Limit 2-7 Single Draw and Fixed Limit Badugi.

The 10 game poker mix begins with Hold’em and ends with Fixed Limit Badugi. Because the mix comprises both fixed limit and no limit variants of poker, everything is more complicated for beginners. Wagers range from as low as a few cents to a few thousands of dollars.

Brief on 10 Mixed Games of Poker

In Fixed Limit Texas Hold’em, wagers double on each turn and you should focus on high-value pots. Opponents will probably be folding at the end.

Fixed Limit Stud Hi/Lo is a spin-off of the 7-card type of Stud poker game where the pot is divided between the highest value and lowest value hands during the showdown.

In Pot Limit Omaha poker, the rookies usually overestimate their hands.

When you’re playing Fixed Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, you need to achieve the lowest possible hand and high aces during 3 draws. Don’t focus on flushes and straights and aim for the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 combination. Beginners always confuse an Ace for a low card.

Fixed Limit Razz is a variant of Stud and players focus on getting the lowest 5 cards. Aces count as low-value card in Razz. Your best hand is the wheel which includes a combination of one Ace and 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 cards.

No Limit Texas Hold’em is the high-end and most dangerous variant of poker. Focus on betting big and being aggressive to guarantee wins.

During Fixed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo you can try your luck using both high-value and low-value hands. Begin with low hands and study your opponents’ reactions.

Fixed Limit Stud Hi can only be won with a high-value hand.

The No Limit 2-7 Single Draw is incredibly challenging because you should aim to have a low aces hand and avoid flushes or straights.

Limit Badugi involves landing four low-value cards from separate suits and make as many draws as you want.

Before We Go

Mixed poker games will shake up the lifestyle of the most professional player in the world. It’s an incredible way to overcome the routine of standard poker tournaments and get a pure adrenaline rush.

In the end, that’s what gambling is all about. Test your skills and challenge your mastery in poker by joining the 10 Game Poker Mix offered by Full Tilt.

If you’re starting to look for ways to level up your online poker skills, one of the best poker tips you can get is to learn about poker personalities and poker playing styles. This is a very common technique used by advanced poker player, which involves profiling other players to understand their poker personalities. To use poker playing styles to your advantage you only have to learn about four main poker personalities, which will be presented to you in the section below.

Understanding the poker playing styles of players sitting around you, as well as understanding your own poker personality will allow you to really step up your game and take it to the realms of science rather than relying on chance alone. By consistently evaluating poker playing styles of other players, you’ll manage to do extremely useful predictions on how they may play out a hand.

Understanding the four main poker personalities and the associated poker playing styles

Outlining separate poker personalities is ultimately an arbitrary process; depending on your personal strategies as well as your own perspective, you may find it useful to organize your thinking around dozens of poker playing styles. That’s is just fine as long as it suits your purpose; however, if you don’t have much experience profiling poker players, it’s usually best to start with just a few basic poker personalities, and then expand and refine on those as your progress.

The four basic poker playing styles are usually the combination of two possible variables: how loose or tight a player is regarding the hands they choose to play (a tight player plays only the best few hands), and how aggressive or passive they tend to be in terms of actual betting (an aggressive player will throw money into the pot fearlessly). By mixing these two essential variables, we get a broad overview of the four basic poker play styles:

Tight – Aggressive: this is the kind of player who places a bet more often than they call on a bet… and when they do move forward with a hand they tend to be relentless by doing intensive raises and a doing the best they can to push opponents into folding. Going against this kind of player is can be tough and often expensive, so skilled players will tend to stay out of the way on the few hands a tight-aggressive player will play.

Loose – Aggressive: this type of poker personality is often used by either novices who don’t know what they’re doing, or by very skilled players who are looking to make a killing out on the table. It’s a style of play that involves joining most hands and using psychological warfare, bluffing and always keeping opponents on their toes. It can be the most challenging poker playing style to deal with, since it’s so unpredictable.

Tight-Passive: this kind of player is sometimes known as a “rock”, since they will be tend to play very few hands, and in the few times they do join the game they will tend to act very conservatively by throwing as little money as possible into the pot, calling as needed and seldom raising the bet. Players with this kind of approach to the game are unlikely to come out big winners since they take few risks… but on the other hand they can be hard to push around.

Loose-Passive: often known as the calling station, because this is the type of player that will join pretty much every hand but they will also be very wary of raising the bets – meaning you’ll often get to see them play a hand but only rarely will you feel pressured by these types of characters. This is a very typical playing style for inexperienced players, who are still learning the way around the game.

Further poker tips to get ahead in online poker by paying attention to poker personalities

If you’re just getting started learning about poker personalities, you should just focus on looking at players attentively – including yourself. As you’re analyzing the different attitudes and play styles, you should just focus on how loosely or how tightly a players joins the hands, as well as how aggressive or passive their betting tends to be. Simply by paying attention to these variables, you’ll start getting in the habit of profiling players and you’ll learn to choose the best strategy for a game by looking closely at the people around you.

Casino Hold’Em Explained

Invented by Stephen Au-Ying in 2000, Casino Hold‘Em has remained popular both in land-based casinos as well as online casinos ever since. You will find this online poker game in most of the establishments operating on the Playtech platform.

To play Casino Hold ‘Em, you use a typical 52-card deck. All the cards in the poker table get shuffled after every deal. There’s a unique layout available for the online poker table. Nonetheless, it is also viable to use the arrangement used in Carribean Stud Poker.

Casino Hold‘Em is among the most common poker options played at any place and with a wide range of online casinos extending this game, online players can feel as if they are at the centre of the action of the live game.

Casino Hold‘Em doesn’t hold a house edge, meaning the players won’t make millions like in other poker games. Nevertheless, there are some Casino Hold’Em tips and tactics that you can use as you play the game and they will assist you to increase your winnings as well as overall success.

Casino Hold‘Em is developed for the player to play versus the online casino as an alternative to playing against other players. As a player, you should know that various set bets and rules, so you should first familiarise yourself with these before you attempt to participate in the live dealer game.

Objectives of Casino Hold ‘Em

This game aims to achieve a five-card poker hand higher-ranking, using seven community cards and two pocket cards. The rules do not standardise the exact number of either community or pocket cards that ought to form a hand.

Casino Hold’Em Rules

The player places a bet and gets two hole cards and three community cards. The dealer also gets two cards unknown to the online player. The only option is to either Fold or Play the hand. If the player decides to play, he will place a Play wager that’s 2 x the initial bet. However, if he chooses to fold, he will only lose the initial wager.

If the player decides to play, then the last two community cards will be dealt, the hand of the dealer gets revealed, and the player either loses or wins contingent on whether his hand beats the hand of the dealer or not. The rankings of the hand are similar to those of Texas Hold ‘Em, and the highest card determines the winner should there be a tie in the hand rankings. Additionally, there is a rule where the dealer should qualify for the comparisons of the hands to take place. In Casino Hold ‘Em, a pair of four cards or better will qualify the dealer. If the dealer fails to qualify, the player will win a payoff on the initial bet, and then the Play bet will get pushed.

House Edge and Best Strategy

When playing Casino Hold’em online using the best strategy, the house control is approximately 0.80%. In this game, there are no clear-cut rules that tell players when they should fold their hand or when to play because the strategy is solely dependent on all the five cards in play. You will find some available charts telling you precisely what you should do if you are holding particular cards and you should refer to them more often.

With basic strategies, the players of Casino Hold‘Em get better opportunities of winning pots and can remain for a longer duration playing the game. Once you familiarise yourself with the strategy charts, you can continue utilising the optimal strategy and begin using their tactics to help you increase your possibilities of winning all the more.

As a primary rule, the players are not allowed to fold whenever they get a pair, King or Ace high or flush or an undecided straight. Additionally, you should avoid folding using a Queen high. You can only fold with extremely low cards or else those that will not possibly develop a straight or an extra paying hand.

Conclusion

While most Casino Hold‘Em games offer a high level of excitement often craved by many experienced players, it might be quite overwhelming for new players, especially those unaware of the strategies and basic rules.

Before you enter into any Casino Hold‘em game, check the betting limits of the table first. Most of the players make the mistake of participating in a high-limited play using limited funds. You can avoid this blunder by always checking the table limits before you place any bet. By using fundamental Casino Hold‘Em strategies and implementing money management skills, you can enjoy this game and start accumulating incredibly high paying pots.

Poker is a great battle of wits where players call each others’ bluff, creating the illusion that fortune has dealt them the best ever hand of cards. Relying on betting strategies and holding their own nerve, players try to trick opponents into defeat. Many find the challenge of outwitting other players, overturning luck and winning a large pot of money into the bargain totally irresistible. With online poker tournaments growing in popularity there’s no shortage of opportunities for everyone to test their own skills, but where does a beginner start?

Online Casinos UK Poker Tournaments

From free tournaments with small cash prizes to live streamed events with six figure jackpots, there are online poker tournaments to suit every skill level. Convenient and easily accessed through laptops and mobiles, games are available every day of the week. At the top of the deck are entertaining sites with real time, live streaming. These regularly attract experienced players, particularly those who have achieved a type of celebrity status on the poker circuit. Games are played every day, but weekends are usually reserved for those with the largest guaranteed pay-out of up to half a million pounds or more. Watching how others play can give an insight into betting strategies and tactics, but there’s far more spine-tingling fun to be had gambling with your own skills.

Online Casino UK Poker Steps To Success

A novice usually starts to play poker online at a Sit and Go (SNG) game. These poker tournaments have a low entry fee enabling the beginner to play as frequently as possible while learning the rules and strategies and developing their own unique style of play. Each game can have a varied number of entrants, although figures of up to 360 are not uncommon. Players are arranged at different tables that hold up to around nine players. Play is in a straightforward knock-out format with the last player still standing carrying off the prize money. When players feel they’ve honed their skills sufficiently, they next seek out one of the Multi Table Tournaments (MTT). Here they’ll find the same basic format and low priced entrance fee, but this time, low risk stakes lead to temptingly larger prizes. The next step up the online poker tournaments ladder is a Heads Up Tournament which offers a tense, nail-biting experience. Once again, large numbers of players are involved, but they pit their wits against each other one at a time, refining their bluffing skills until the last one left emerges as the winner. Satellite tournaments offer the best chance of gaining access to the larger poker tournaments with even bigger jackpots, by offering entrance tickets as prizes.

How To Play Poker Online

The procedure of playing will be similar on all online poker sites. After registering and paying an entrance fee through a credit or debit card, a player is allocated a place at a table and awarded a number of chips, representing money, with which to make bets. If a player runs out of chips, they are out of the game, whereas the last player left wins all the chips on the table. A player must learn to balance betting large sums to deceive opponents while keeping their stack of chips as intact as possible. Bets are often increased by set amounts during play and in some rounds everyone has to pay a fixed bet before dealing begins. Some online tournaments try to avoid losing too many players in the early stages by allowing regular opportunities to buy extra limited quantities of chips. Occasionally, just to balance things up, all players are allowed a simultaneous chance to buy extra “add on ” chips. The amount of the winner’s prize money is known at the start of the game with a much smaller share being divided between four of five runners up.

Play Poker Online

Countless new players have been introduced to the exciting strategies and deceptions of poker through the creation of online sites. Easy and convenient to access, online poker tournaments with low entry fees and large money prizes are hard to resist. Beginners who aspire one day to test their skills in one of the larger online poker tournaments can learn how to successfully call an opponent’s bluff as they progress through the system. Then with a bit of luck on your side, outwitting an opponent who has a much better hand than your own, can be a gamble worth taking.

The online gaming community has ushered in several exciting possibilities and one which is gaining an increasing amount of popularity is the ability for players to access multi-table poker tournaments. In terms of sheer excitement, few alternatives can match the white-knuckle thrills associated with ascending to the top of a multi-table match. Of course, there is also the very real possibility of walking away with a tidy sum of money. In order to leverage these opportunities in the most effective manner, it is important to know some of the most common misstakes to avoid as well as to recognise a handful effective strategies to embrace. Let’s take a look at these concepts below.

An Erroneous MTT Poker Strategy: Spreading Yourself Too Thin

Many experts feel that the most prevalent mistake is to play too many tables. This is largely due to temptation. More is not always better. It is challenging enough to keep track of four tables at the same time. If this number doubles for the sheer sake of profit, the chances are high that otherwise needless mistakes will be made somewhere along the way.

The other problem with this approach is that it can often be difficult to find tables with the same buy-in levels. To meet hourly profit margins, players might be forced to choose tables with lower overall values. This will inevitably lead to hourly rates declining. So, it is clear that the one of the most critical MTT poker tips is to only take on as many tables as you can handle without sacrificing sound judgement.

Dealing with Pressure in Multi-Table Tournaments

In order to enjoy a healthy profit margin, MTT poker tips frequently stress the need to practice heads-up tournaments. The primary reason behind this methodology is that the prize money (normally) rises substantially between second and first place. However, strategies are also likely to change. One common mistake is to keep embracing risk. This can lead to substantial losses within a short amount of time. There is little room for error when so much depends upon a single hand. Multi-table heads-up games should therefore be played much more conservatively. While small bluffs will occur, larger moves will not be seen unless both competitors have strong hands. In other words, playing it safe is a much more prudent approach during a heads-up multi-table round.

Smaller Practise Margins

One of the issues which some players will encounter is the fact that multiple buy-ins will cost money over time. This causes some to shy away from practising and honing their skills. To be sure, losses can and will occur. This is the nature of the game. The way to avoid crossing any financial red lines is to limit games to smaller stakes. Players will still be able to learn without becoming distracted due to incorrect decisions.

Conservative Gameplay: The Safe MTT Poker Strategy

It has been said that temptation is the worst enemy of any poker player. This maxim is even more true in reference to multi-table games. Players are provided with deep stacks and a seemingly unlimited number of chips. The danger here is that beginners may start to play entirely too many hands. Let us not forget that even massive funds can become depleted in a relatively short amount of time; particularly when playing a number of tables simultaneously. This is why it is always a good idea to avoid playing weaker hands.

Embrace Aggression

At first glance, this suggestion might seem to contradict the conservative strategy that was mentioned earlier. We need to point out that there is a fine line between aggressive gameplay and one associated with foolish mistakes. To be clear, a poker player should ALWAYS be aggressive and this observation is even more true in reference to a solid MTT poker strategy. The reason behind this is simple. Betting players can win in two ways. They can either have a superior hand or their style could cause others to fold. Either way, this is much better than calling and hoping that statistics prove favourable. Once again, this does not signify that chips should be tossed around the table. It rather means that a calculated level of assertion can produce very real results.

These are all powerful MTT poker tips which will be able to provide you with a leading edge. However, there is nothing more powerful than experience and patience. These two qualities will ultimately lead to success over time.

Pineapple Poker Rules

Pineapple Poker is one of the most exciting Holdem Poker variants. The basic Pineapple Poker variant follows the same flow of Holdem, however you are dealt three hole cards, rather than two. You must then discard one of those hole cards before the flop. The game then proceeds the same as Holdem.

This is the usual sequence of events in this Holdem Poker variant (excluding any betting for simplicity’s sake):

• Each player is dealt 3 face down cards known as “hole” or “pocket” cards.
• The players must then choose to discard one of those hole cards.
• The dealer then reveals the “flop”, three face up community cards which can be used by anyone in combination with their hole cards to make their best five card hand.
• After that, the dealer reveals the “turn” and river” cards in two separate rounds, two more community cards.
• The players must then combine their hole cards with the community cards to make their best five card hand.

Pineapple Poker Variants

Two of the most popular Pineapple Poker variants are called “Crazy Pineapple” and “Lazy Pineapple”.

Crazy Pineapple

Crazy Pineapple is different in that you hold onto all three hole cards until after the flop. This creates a much different dynamic in which players often will pursue draws, increasing the value of straight and flush draws and decreasing the value of pairs. Many players make the mistake of holding onto their high pair with no draws, only to lose to a low pair or flush.

It is advisable to stay away from the showdown without the first or seconds nuts, due to the many combinations of hands available to each player after the flop. The game is also often played in hi-lo format, which makes the winning hands even more varied. This definitely makes for a more dangerous, but much more exciting game than Holdem!

Lazy Pineapple

Lazy Pineapple is the other popular Pineapple Poker variant. The main difference in this variant is that the three hole cards are kept through the entire game. However, you can only use a maximum of two of the hole cards to complete your hand. With the variety of hands available at the end of a game of Lazy Pineapple, only extremely strong hands tend to win.

Pineapple Poker Strategy

Even though Pineapple Poker is a Holdem Poker variant, different strategies must be applied. Due to the possibilities of hands, pots are often contested multi-way, and hands that may seem strong to a Holdem player may actually be weak in this Holdem Poker variant.

Generally speaking, you will need to tighten up your game when playing Pineapple Poker. While a hand like AA is very valuable in Holdem, AsAc9h is not nearly as strong in Pineapple poker due to not holding any flush or straight draws. Premium hands are often considered to be Big pairs with a flush or straight (or better yet, both) draw. An example of this would be KsKhQs, offering a high pair, an open ended straight draw, and a high flush draw.

Pineapple Poker is similar to Omaha (another popular Holdem Poker Variant) in that you usually need a better hand by the river than Holdem Poker to compete for the pot. Oftentimes the 3rd or 4th nut simply lose out due to the variety of hands available. So, similar to other Holdem poker variants, bluffing is less valuable unless you have a great read on an opponent, as the more people in the pot the more likely it is that someone will have the nuts or close to them.

Summary

There is no arguing that Pineapple Poker is an action game. The variety of hand possibilities, especially when playing Crazy Pineapple, ensures there’s never a dull game and will liven up any home game. With these strategies, you will be on your way to being a Pineapple Poker shark!